Declining Political and Media Engagement Indicates a New Phase

The French media’s coverage of the political and diplomatic crisis with Algeria has undergone a remarkable shift over the past several weeks, accompanied by a significant reduction in coverage to unprecedented levels, even when relations were proceeding normally. This development has raised questions among observers.

This media silence has also coincided with political silence. A figure like French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, who once spoke about Algeria morning and night, has begun giving lengthy interviews but never touching on Algeria, as happened in his recent interview with LCI TV, and other ministers, such as Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, who is responsible for this issue under the direction of his president, Emmanuel Macron.

An Algerian diplomatic expert interviewed by Echorouk regarding this issue said: “There’s no smoke without fire,” commenting on the disappearance of French political and media hype regarding Algeria, which had peaked about two months ago. This indicates that something is happening behind closed doors. The political and media silence, the same analyst says, aims to avoid poisoning the atmosphere with provocative statements, as happened previously.

The former French ambassador to Algeria, Xavier Driencourt, is considered the most affected by the new trends in the former colony. This retired diplomat was present on television channels, newspapers, and websites almost daily, and became an expert on every detail of bilateral relations. He was also a theorist for the far right on how to harm Algeria, undermine its vital interests in France, and target its diaspora there.

In the opinion of the diplomatic expert, who preferred to remain anonymous, the equation is simple. The first side is the decline in political and media influence in France toward Algeria. The second side is the beginning of building bridges of communication between the two countries, although initially limited to a few economic figures, such as Rodolphe Saadé, owner of the largest French shipping company, CMA CGM, who recently visited Algeria and was received by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune. This was followed by the participation of some French companies in an Algiers fair.

The spokesperson said, “When we observe the visits of French economic investors to Algeria, and the signing of deals (TotalEnergies securing a deal with Sonatrach last week), this is an indicator that can be read, in the absence of any official information, as positive trends at the highest levels regarding the need to turn the page on the dispute,” which is approaching its first year.

The diplomatic expert added, “What we are seeing in the bilateral relations scene is not a political declaration. Rather, there are visits by prominent figures of an economic nature, and perhaps shortly we will witness an exchange of visits and delegations by political figures. This will be an inevitable result of the political flexibility shown by both sides recently, and perhaps this is a positive interpretation of the signals received from here and there.”

While the tendency of politicians and media professionals in France to de-escalate tensions has significantly contributed to easing tensions between the two countries, this fact also reveals beyond a shadow of a doubt that freedom of expression in France, which the French have long used to justify their provocations against Algeria, was merely a slogan whose falsity has been exposed.

It is unreasonable that the decision of a right-wing French newspaper to reduce the number of its articles on Algeria to zero weeks ago, when it had been targeting Algeria with dozens of articles a day, could have been a sovereign decision or a sudden awakening of conscience, as much as it was receiving instructions from some source within the French state.

This is a fact that even the newspaper’s officials cannot deny. This approach leads to the assertion that freedom of expression in France and other Western countries is nothing more than a lever used by political will to achieve political and geopolitical goals.